At Sea
by sasha1600
Summary: Part of my 'Lessons' series.  Scenes from Tony's life as Agent Afloat.
1. Chapter 1

**At Sea**

**Summary: **Part of my 'Lessons' series. Scenes from Tony's life as Agent Afloat.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, I just play with them.

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><p>AN: This is part of my 'Lessons' series and builds on a larger plot arc. This takes place during Tony's time as Agent Afloat and follows my story 'Shipping Out'.

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><p>Tony sorted through the pile of mail that had been left for him in his small office. He already knew that it would be more of the same memos and briefings that he was already tired of reading. His shipmates got excited about mail-call, expecting packages from home; he got more work, and was starting to resent the fact that being stuck on an aircraft carrier in the middle of the damn ocean apparently wasn't enough to get away from the paperwork.<p>

To his surprise, the bundle contained a large padded envelope addressed in familiar handwriting. A huge smile spread across his face as he carefully sliced it open and tipped the contents onto the battered metal desk.

Out tumbled a portable hard drive and a greeting-card-sized envelope.

After a moment's hesitation, he grabbed the envelope first, and opened it to find a house-warming card. Rolling his eyes slightly at the optimistic spin being put on his new position, he scanned the message. Tim was settling into his leadership role in cybercrimes, Abby had written, and the contents of the computer drive were a gift from both of them.

Intrigued, he snagged the drive and hooked it up to his laptop. When the directory opened, Tony nearly shouted in delight. His two favourite geeks had apparently taken it upon themselves to send him a digital movie collection, containing some of his favourites and some things he'd never seen before. It looked like the entire Magnum series was in there, too, and the first season of a new comedy show that he'd heard good things about but had never gotten around to watching.

This should be one of those credit-card ads, he though, firing up his email to send thank-you notes. _Friends who know you well enough to send the perfect gift... priceless!_


	2. Chapter 2

Gibbs slid the just-finished letter into the neatly addressed envelope and sealed it. He hadn't had a lot of news to relate – just the mundane details of life, things that really didn't matter, but that, in the telling, helped to sustain an illusion of normalcy. He knew that most communication between sailors and their families was by email now, but he remembered vividly how much a tangible connection to home had meant when he had been deployed. He cherished every one of Shannon's letters. And he was determined to give the same to Tony.


	3. Chapter 3

Abby looked up at the ping of an incoming email, her eyes widening at the subject line. An 'SOS' message from Tony did not sound good, she thought, opening the message.

A few minutes later, her fears assuaged, she was rummaging in a storage cupboard, grinning. It was sweet of Gibbs to send Tony a letter-tape, she thought. And very much like Gibbs not to realise that, in an age when interviews were recorded digitally, an Agent Afloat wouldn't have a cassette player handy!


	4. Chapter 4

Tony settled back, getting as comfortable as he could in the helicopter. He hadn't decided yet if he loathed or loved the investigations that took him away from the ship. Getting there was a pain, and he didn't especially enjoy documenting drug runners' shoot-outs in the middle of the damn ocean, but at least it meant he could investigate without the ship's officious XO looking over his shoulder, sometimes literally.

Reaching into the side pocket of his backpack, he pulled out an e-book reader and powered it on.

The device had been a going-away gift from Ducky and Palmer. He'd been particularly touched that Palmer had offered him the reader that he'd ordered for himself, which had fortuitously arrived just hours before Vance had dropped his bombshell. The gremlin had just shrugged, blushing slightly, stammering out an explanation about being able to order a replacement easily enough. And Ducky had loaded it with the entire James Bond series and a couple of best-sellers, as well as an eclectic mix of classics from a website that offered free digitised copies of out-of-copyright books. Considering the limited luggage he'd been allowed to bring, it had been a thoughtful and much appreciated gift.

On a whim, he pulled up a Sherlock Holmes story. He didn't often read detective fiction – it was too much like work. But, as his eyes scanned the text, he heard the story in his mind, narrated in Ducky's soft accent, and was reminded of home.


End file.
